In the prior art, there is known a technique for determining an embroidery starting position of a workpiece in conformity with the indication of a laser beam emitted from a laser marker. In Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2004-141, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, there is described a multi-needle type embroidery sewing machine, which is provided with a thread raising device 52 disposed below an arm unit 51 of a machine head 50 and sloped up backward, and a laser marker 53 attached in parallel with that inclination to the midway portion of the lower face of the thread raising device 52, so that a needle drop point 57 of a bed 56 is obliquely irradiated with a laser beam 54.
In Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2005-58470, on the other hand, as shown in FIG. 5, there is described a multi-needle type embroidery sewing machine, in which the laser marker 53 is attached to a needle bar support 58 in place of some of a plurality of needle bars 55 and in which the needle bar support 58 is moved by a color changing mechanism thereby to index the laser marker 53 to just above the needle drop point 57.